File talk:Promotion Guidelines (DEPRECATED)
THIS INFORMATION IS FROM PREVIOUS ROUNDS AND DOES NOT APPLY TO DCBB 2019 The DCBB offers official promotion for all upcoming teams on the DCBB tumblr and twitter. This guide will walk you through the basics. Please note: If you don't submit promo info at the time it's requested, we'll assume your team does not wish to be promoted in advance. For authors: What do I need to provide for my promo? Story Title: This can be a working title. If you want to change it later, you can. If you absolutely must, you may name it Untitled but for the best promo results you should try to think of a name that people will remember. Story Summary: This is the summary you want the public to see. This doesn’t have to be your final summary, but this will be viewed by the public to hype them up for the story. Rating Warnings: For this you only need provide a warning if it contains one of the 4 major archive warnings for Ao3. Tags: You may provide us with up to 10 additional tags you feel are relevant. Including: other pairings, tropes, and anything else you feel is relevant. If you submit more than 10, those additional tags will not be included Story Preview: Please provide us with a portion of your story that is 300 to 500 words long. A promotional graphic (see below) What are the graphic requirements? We’re asking your team to provide a promo graphic. This is a simple graphic made from a photograph with your fic title and both team member names. Either partner may create it (but keep in mind, this graphic is not to be illustrated, so no asking your artist to whip up a quick drawing). See past previews on the DCBB tumblr What's required? * Promo graphics may have only photographs, textures, or solid colors as backgrounds. Please, no photomanipulation (see below). Need to source photos? Please check the Resources page. * You may use episode screencaps, but do not use someone else's edits without permission. * Banners and book-style covers should include the fic title, the name of both partners (double check with each other about spelling/formatting), and “DCBB” or “Dean/Cas Big Bang.” You can also use the DCBB square logo (see links below). * For simple collages, it’s fine if they are text-free, but it must be a single graphic so it can easily be shared to tumblr and Twitter. What’s not allowed? * Your team author may not commission art or illustrate their own promo banner. This includes asking artist friends to illustrate something as a favor. No photomanips, either. That's not fair to your team artist. * Your team artist may not illustrate the promo banner. This includes photomanipulation (see the next bullet point). Your artist can't do this either. (Your team artist is welcome to illustrate the banner that will accompany your masterpost in October/November, just not this one. You’ve just met. If they make this banner, they'll need to use photos and text only, please.) * Do not manipulate the photos beyond cropping, light editing (eg. brightening or adjusting saturation), and applying filters. Merging multiple photographs into a single image by removing backgrounds, blurring, or repainting areas would qualify as photomanipulation, which is considered art for the DCBB. Please don't do this for your promo banner. A simple rule of thumb is that if Instagram or Canva can't accomplish the task, it probably isn't allowed. * You may not use existing digital art or illustrations as backgrounds. Why? We don't want you to use anything that could be misconstrued as having been created by your artist. Please stick with photographs, textures, and solid colors. * This should go without saying, but you may not use existing fanart or photomanipulations in your promotional banners. * Please, no animation. We will reject banners that do not meet these criteria. What dimensions/file type should I use? We have no required dimensions for your promo graphic, except that it should be at least 540px wide to suit tumblr. Beyond that, the size and design is up to you to determine. Graphics should be PNG or JPEG format. Graphics must be safe for work. No exceptions. Where can I download the DCBB square logo? We have black and white versions available on transparent backgrounds. Do not alter these logos other than to re-size them. Download white DCBB logo Download black DCBB logo Download black Dean/Cas Big Bang logo You don’t have to include the logo in your graphic. Instead, you can write “DCBB” or “Dean/Cas Big Bang.” What is the DCBB logo typeface? It’s a brush font called Black Diamond. If you happen to own it, we ask that you don’t use it for your banner, since it’s the typeface we use for official DCBB stuff and we will ask you to change it. I've never made a graphic like this before. How do I start? If neither member of your team has experience making simple graphics, we recommend Canva. It's a free browser-based graphic design program that works on all computers—including Chromebooks. There are apps available for it as well. You can find links and more on our Resources page. Can the mods design a graphic for me? The DCBB is too large for us to design graphics for everyone. All teams are responsible for providing their own graphic. Promos will not be posted without one. Is there an official template? Nope! Your graphic should be as original as your story, so please create something that fits it. Category:Guidelines